| Using “All
That Apply” Question Types
by Steven B. Just
The Pedagogue Assessment Management
System, like most systems that can create on-line tests, has
an “All That Apply” question type, in which more
than one choice may be correct. For example:
Select the people who were presidents
of the United States:
William Henry Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Andrew Johnson
Henry Clay
Chester Arthur
As opposed to multiple choice questions, students
uniformly dislike this question type. Why? Simple –
it’s harder. Instead of testing one piece of information
it tests several. So what should you do? There are several
strategies:
- Give the student a hint
by telling him/her how many choices are correct. In the
above example:
Which four of the following people
were presidents of the United States?
William Henry Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Andrew Johnson
Henry Clay
Chester Arthur
- Give partial credit
(assuming your system is capable of doing so). Reward the
student for getting some of the answers correct even if
he/she did not get them all correct.
- Weight the question
at more than the question weight of a multiple choice question
(again, assuming your system is capable of doing so).
- Do nothing. You expect
the student to know ALL of the information tested, so it’s
all or nothing.
There is no single correct strategy. How you
choose to score this question type depends on the particular
test, the purpose of the test and the audience of test takers.
For those of you who use this question type we’d like
to hear what you do (e-mail us at ps.info@pedagogue.com).
Use the subject All That Apply.
By the way, if you don’t
want to look it up yourself, the correct answers are: William
Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, Andrew Johnson and Chester
Arthur.
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